‘An International University’

This is a short post. This phrase is going around a lot at the minute….but what exactly does it mean?!

Thoughts….

Paul

Nearing Christmas!

Hey everyone,

Been a while since my last blog post. But that is not because I haven’t been doing anything! Ok, I don’t work weekends though.

Anyway, thanks to Nic for the comment on web analytics. Anyone else any questions about anything marketing, just shout. The Daily Echo had a question last week for me so keep an eye for my name in the paper! Media star haha!

I actually finish for Christmas on Friday so just spending this last week tidying things up. Couple of white papers to write and a funding application for some nice international research to complete. Whether I get the money is another question! That particular application is for research that is trying to promote our ‘new DNA of Marketing’. Basically,  marketing isn’t just advertising; it’s about anything to do with customers. Technology is everywhere in it (just think of Twitter) and that’s where out new DNA comes in.

As for what I did today, I gave an hour-long lecture this morning and then had a couple of meetings. As I said I am finishing things off nicely for Christmas – I am very organised you see! I actually got some work dumped on me unexpectedly this evening, which has thrown a spanner in the works! I am helping to develop a new BSc International Marketing programme along with a university in Toulouse. Think international student exchange is the way to go!

Anyway, I better go on. Be in touch again soon.

Thanks,

Paul

Me again!

Hello again,

Bright and early this morning. Hope you’re all well? No comments yet on my first blog so I must not have inspired you all very much (or no one is reading this!).

Meetings with students went well yesterday. We really do offer a very good support system in the School of Management, where personal tutors (well me anyway!) offer both academic and moral support. As the postgraduate students are almost all international, they have a lot of cultural issues to overcome to settle in to their studies. I am sure this is an issue for other schools? Whether we deal with it as well as we can in terms of course design etc. is another question…

Anyway, I have a lecture to give at 9am so I better go and write my slides (only joking!). After that I am meeting Tim Watson from smartFOCUS (an email marketing company) so that might be good for research and academic enterprise….which is what most of us are judged on I guess! Tomorrow, I’ll fill you in on how it went.

I’ll leave you today with a question about web analytics. You all use the Internet right? Do you know just how much you’re being tracked on there….?

Chat soon,

Paul

Hello!

Hi everyone!

Well, my name is Paul Harrigan and I am a Lecturer in Marketing in the School of Management. I suppose the purpose of this blog is for me to ‘market’ what I do in a normal week at the University.

First, a bit of background about me. I joined the University in my current position in September 2008, having just completed my PhD at the University of Ulster (2005-2008). I have to say that I have really enjoyed my year-and-a-bit in Southampton and hope to enjoy many more (this blog is public so have to say that – only joking!!). Seriously, I really enjoy my work and I hope to give you an insight into what I do during this week’s blogging.

Basically, a normal week consists of a mix of teaching and research. I don’t know what the formal mix is supposed to be on my contract, but I just get on with whatever I think is important. Right now, that is typing up this blog. Just before this, it was checking that I was prepared for my class at 10am today. This semester I am teaching Marketing to second year undergraduates, and I think both them and me are enjoying it. I’ll tell you more about that later in the week.

As for my research, that was yesterday. I got two bits of good news on Friday (both within 10 minutes of each other!) that I got a paper accepted in a 3* journal and that I got some funding to do some research – not much but it all helps! My area of expertise is web analytics and customer insight. First to tell me what they are gets a prize! Not really, but yeah have a guess!

I hope that’s enough of an introduction to start. If anyone wants to reply, feel free. The rest of my day is student-focused! I have two classes with those marketing students – we’re doing a quiz. Then, I am meeting my 25 personal tutees all afternoon….so I’ll be back tomorrow to let you know how my day went.

Thanks!

Paul

Environment Manager

So, how well do we think we’re doing at protecting the environment?

This year we completed the Business in the Community Environment Index for the first time. This is a benchmarking tool to see how well we’re doing compared to others in the sector and businesses. Overall we scored 66% which was better than the sector average (62%). But we’re some way below business (81%), which isn’t surprising given that they’ve been completing the index for quite a few years. The summary report will be put on the sustainable development website.

 You will not be surprised that tackling climate change is one of the key challenges facing us, particularly as we aspire to continue to develop and grow the University. Cutting carbon emissions has proved extremely difficult, as for example the new Mountbatten building has come on line requiring enormous amounts of energy.

But the drivers to reduce our emissions cannot be ignored. The UK has set a target to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and HEFCE are likely to sign up to a similar target. This will mean a 34% cut by 2020.

Reducing our carbon emissions is everyone’s responsibility and we are currently drafting a carbon strategy to map out how we will all meet the challenge. This will involve senior management commitment, investment in the estate and infrastructure and all us doing our bit to help.

We are the size of a small town and so can make a significant difference to the UK’s and city’s  footprint. Switching off Pcs and lights may not seem like much but given the number of Pcs and lights that are routinely left on around our campuses this will help. How many of us leave our lights on at home during the day?

Our students in halls are taking part in a switch off campaign this year. This campaign has reduced energy consumption in other University  halls by an average of 8%. Hopefully, our Eco-Power Rangers will do the same. As part of this campaign, there’s a free screening of the Age of Stupid film on 19th November and I look forward to seeing you there.

 So, the question for today is, what are you doing at the University to help cut carbon emissions?

Environment Manager blog – Day 1

Welcome to my week of blogging. What I plan to do over the next week is talk about some of the work I do here and more importantly ask some questions about what you think we should be doing about the big environmental questions of the day, such as climate change and resource depletion. I’ll also be talking about governemt targets, such as zero waste to landfill and what you can do to help us achieve these targets (if they are achievable!).

So, to kick off here’s a bit about me. I joined the University about 4 1/2 years ago as it’s first Environment Manager. Before that I was with the Environment Agency (the main regulator for industry in England and Wales) for 15 years where I did several jobs from dealing with pollution incidents, giving advice to farmers on what to do with their slurry,  reporting on water quality data, to preparing reports (Hazardous waste, Ionising  Radiation Sector).

So, I came over the fence to help the University comply with the law as well as trying to give it some strategic direction.

I’m passionate about helping improve the University’s environmental footprint as well as (hopefully) saving us some cash. I sometimes find it hard to get the work life balance right - year’s of training has seen me move from being able to spot a sewage treatment works with ease to adding recycling bins and buses to my portfolio! I also now read a contender for the guest publication for Have I got News For You – Bus and coach weekly.

So why the interest in buses – I look after the Uni-link contract (as well as the rest of transport). Many of you (I hope) have tried Uni-link or will do so and I’m sure this will generate some comment (good and bad). Last year Uni-link carried 3.5M passengers and grew by 5%. This year on year growth is unmatched in the bus world and shows there’s an appetite for public transport, providing there’s a quality service at a reasonable price.

What I’ve found about transport is that everyone has an opinion and whilst many (not all) agree we need to tackle car use, they all have a perfectly good reason why they should continue to drive.  If you want to find out more about travel matters take a look at www.soton.ac.uk/transport.

Many of you answered the travel survey back in June and we should have the results out at the end of the month. This will give us an indication on how well we’re doing in changing commuting habits.

I was in a meeting today with SU to talk about a similar survey for students in Feb next year and what we’d need to do to encourage students to complete the questionnaire (Eurostar & iTunes seems to be a winner).

The great thing about my job is that no two days are the same – I cover any activity that impacts on the environment which is just about everything. Yesterday, for example, I talked to the bus company about driver training on customer care (something that’s often not seen as a priority, after all drivers are there to drive the bus and not to talk to the passengers!), followed by a chat with Laurie Wright (PhD student with the city) and Brian Shewan (Scottish & Southern Energy) about the carbon footprint project for Southampton and then completed an audit on how well we’re managing waste (some good, some not so good).

So, the question for today is, do you know where you can find a copy of the University’s environment policy? If you know, do you think it covers the things you would expect to see in a policy?

That’s all for now – happy blogging!

Coffee and Commute

It is not all just the glamour of visits from politicians, HEFCE mandarins and world renowned academics in the Vice-Chancellor’s Office - we also have our fair share of idiosyncrasies.

For instance, the morning coffee ritual: for all of you with an unhealthy interest in the caffeine habits of the senior team, I can tell you that the Vice-Chancellor likes an instant coffee, in his favourite “coffee” mug, where he adds his own sweetener.  Simon Higman is a tea man, which is served in his distinctive “Keep Calm and Carry On” mug, associated with the war time posters of the same name.  Although just make sure there is a drop of milk and keep the tea bag in for an extra, bottom of cup, infusion.  Professor Wheeler favours supporting the commercially produced cappuccino brew which comes from the vending machine outside the Senate Room, always wanting to show support to the University’s commercial services, with his frequent use of Uni-link reinforcing his commitment.  Not wanting to conform to the whims of the previous administration, Professor Nutbeam’s arrival has necessitated the purchase of a caffeteire to facilitate the brewing of his favourite early morning filter coffee. Not satisfied with changing the brand and flavour of coffee in the VC’s office, we also now cater for Professor Nutbeam’s preferred afternoon tipple: a nice cup of peppermint tea.

Caffeine habits aside, I’m sure there that many readers are disappointed that we have not been able to go into more detail about the day-to-day business that occurs in the Vice-Chancellor’s Office. This is a deliberate ploy on our part.  Unfortunately, the very nature of the tasks and work that we carry out, on behalf of the senior team, require a high level of discretion and confidentiality, qualities which are an essential attribute to work in any senior executive office.

I can tell you that while we have been guest editing the Find Your Voice blog, the office has assisted in the continuing lease negotiations with Hospital Trust, preparing presentations for Professor Nutbeam’s talk at a Public Health conference in Zurich and the Vice-Chancellor’s keynote address at an Institute of Physics event next week.  We have also been preparing for the next Southampton India Business Network event, the upcoming UEG away days and Senior Manager Meetings as well preparing for the visit of the newly appointed chair of SEEDA and HEFCE board member.  Work continues on a review of the Education related committees below executive level as well as conducting background research in preparation for first MSA Board after the summer break. This is coupled with the daily reactive tasks of appeasing irate phone calls from parents whose offspring failed to get the required grades to get into their preferred course or accommodation at the University. This is in addition to last minute diary changes and a hastily convened Standing Committee of Council. It has been an eventful last four days.

Not many people will know that I recently made the move to South London having lived in Southampton for eight years. Many of my colleagues where flabbergasted that I would opt to change from a 20 minute walk into work each morning to a 2 hour train and bus ride.  I must say that underneath the exterior affirmation that I could make it work, a small part of me was dreading the early mornings and the 4 hours spent commuting every day.  However I can safely say that I feel like one of the lucky few who can truly say that I wake up each morning and look forward to coming to work.  I would recommend ,to anyone, the benefits of being employed in an office which gives you such a deep appreciation of challenges and sense of accomplishment that comes from working at the top of any organisation.

Andy Wilson

www.twitter.com/Soton_vc_office

Looking ahead in the outer office

I’ve been in this office for more than a year now and am yet to come up with a succinct response to the question: What do you do for a living? Executive Officer sounds like a reasonably impressive title, until it’s followed by a long hesitation and then a lengthy, slightly mumbled description.

The truth is, it’s fairly difficult to sum up the scope and breadth of this position in a couple of sentences. It’s also difficult to blog about day-to-day activities while maintaining discretion and confidentiality. However, it’s been suggested that I use this space to give some examples of the longer-term projects that I’m currently working on. In doing so, I will try to avoid the corporate-management-speak label that has been applied to parts of our introductory post!

One of the lighter aspects of my summer has been working with Matt Gawthrop to coordinate the University’s student internship programme. The interns are now in their last month and we have been meeting with them regularly to talk through progress on their respective projects and tackle any issues that they are having. I hope that when we come to evaluate the programme with all of the relevant managers, it will be judged a success. If so, Matt and I will begin the task of breaking down the lessons learned and identifying a sustainable funding model for future years. This may involve widening the scheme to other professional services and creating placements in Schools.

As the internship programme draws to a close, my next challenge will await. I will be spending part of my time for the next six months seconded to the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics. This will involve working with the Dean, Associate Deans, Heads of School and the Faculty Executive Officer to manage a number of new projects. It will no doubt take me back to heady days spent working on the InEx review last summer!

Meanwhile, back in the outer office, I’ll be working with Simon Higman to review the different forums that he uses to communicate with staff. As many of you will be aware, he holds a monthly briefing for Professional Services and School Managers (the PSSM Briefing) in the Senate room (newly adorned with eye-catching artwork from WSA). He also holds a monthly lunch with a selection of staff. These lunches have no fixed agenda or topics and the conversation is always varied, sometimes controversial, and incredibly interesting. However, over the next few weeks I will be assessing whether these forums are still serving their original purpose and whether we need to make changes to ensure our internal communications strategy is effective.

This is just a selection of the very varied things that I’ll be working on as autumn sets in. Comments about the role of Executive Officer are equally as varied; some say we apologise for a living, others offer slightly more complimentary remarks, although no examples spring immediately to mind. What’s certain is that when I walk into work in the morning – that being my three minute commute, rather than Andy’s two hour slog - it’s almost impossible to predict the range of issues that will cross my desk during the day. That’s what keeps the job interesting.

Greg Sandford

The Transition

It is a cliché, but no two days are the same in the Vice-Chancellor’s Office and it would seem that no two August ’holiday’ periods are either!

Having previously worked in the Residences department in August, when students were accepting and we were allocating their accommodation, the move to the Vice-Chancellor’s office in 2008 meant that I experienced my first ’quiet’ August when traditionally staff caught up on the filing.

2009 has proved to be the complete opposite. As many of you will appreciate, we are currently in the middle of the ‘transition’.  It may not be as glamorous as the Obama – Bush handover, but Beverley Bennett and I are in what seems to be the busiest period of the whole year and we still have a full month to go until we only have to worry about one vice-chancellor.

It all started almost 18 months ago when in February 2008 we began the process of recruiting Sir William’s replacement.  Personally it was a fascinating period as I got to experience first hand the process Universities have to follow in order to find their next strategic leader. After assisting in identifying the Selection Panel and the Search Agents, and producing the Further PParticulars document, I never thought I would be involved in the first silent student protest, and all before we had a shortlist!  I particularly enjoyed the informal visits that I arranged for the shortlisted candidates, having the opportunity to meet all the potential candidates was a tremendous privilege but also meant that, for a period, any time I was conducting a campus tour staff thought I was showing around the potential “next vice-chancellor”, I still haven’t had the heart to let one member of staff know that they were actually talking to my visiting uncle and not a world renowned german academic leader…

Two interviews and one year later and Professor Don Nutbeam has now been with us for almost a month.  The next 5 weeks will involve a mixture of emotions as we celebrate Sir William’s leadership and our collective successes, while looking forward with excitement (and of course a few nerves) to the change of Vice-Chancellor…

Andy Wilson

Remember you can still follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/soton_vc_office

Supporting the Registrar and Chief Operating Officer

Although the three Executive Officers in the Vice-Chancellor’s office work flexibly to support all members of the senior management team, we primarily work with one or two on a daily basis. In Andy’s case this is the Vice-Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor Designate, and in mine it’s the Registrar and Chief Operating Officer, Simon Higman.

Simon has two main areas of responsibility: he manages Professional Services – i.e. the non-academic University services – and acts as Secretary to the Council, which has responsibility for the overall strategic direction and legal accountability of the University.

In his capacity as Head of Professional Services, Simon has 11 direct reports, whom he meets formally twice a month – once on a one-to-one basis to discuss budgets, and then as a group to discuss inter-service issues and strategy. The creation of the Department of the University Secretary, in autumn 2008, reduced the number of managers reporting directly to the Registrar and Chief Operating Officer, but Simon still maintains a day-to-day interest and involvement in the departments’ activities, most recently interviewing candidates for the Director of Communications and Marketing role.

Every Monday morning I meet with Simon to discuss the previous week’s meetings and look at the scheduling commitments for the fortnight ahead. This is a useful routine for identifying all the outstanding actions, as well as allowing me to ensure that he has all the information he requires for his upcoming meetings. Diary space is at a premium, and in a busy week, we use this time as an opportunity to identify commitments that can be delegated.

This week I watched our intern’s head spin as Simon jumped from one topic to another, with no discernible pattern, and I recalled my first month in post, when I wondered how Andy could possibly remember so much. Quite a large chunk of this role is remembering information – be that a point raised in a budget meeting two months ago, an article in the Times Higher Education, or an informal conversation with a colleague – and being able to dispense with it confidently at the appropriate moment.

Those who have worked closely with Simon will also know that he likes to end meetings with some, frankly baffling, discussion about the arts. This Monday was no exception, but over the last two months I have come to rely on our intern, Baraka, stepping in and holding his own as the conversation drifts to theatre and opera.

This blog has turned into a rough guide to the Registrar and Chief Operating Officer, so in the next entry I’ll try and provide more insight into what I’m doing while Simon runs the place!

Greg Sandford

Working for Sir William

This week the Find Your Voice blog will be edited by Andy Wilson and Greg Sandford, Executive Officers in the Vice-Chancellor’s Office.

We hope that our blog posts this week will give readers an insight into the work of the staff who support the senior management team, and that in the process we will dispel some of the mystique around the roles and responsibilities of the University’s senior managers and their staff.

The members of the University Executive Group who work out of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office include the Vice-Chancellor, Deputy and Pro Vice-Chancellors and the Registrar and Chief Operating Officer

They are all ably  supported by a team of personal assistants, who work for the Vice-Chancellor’s Office Manager, managing their day-to-day engagements, holding their diaries,  and arranging travel and expenses.

The team is further supported by a group of three executive officers whose role is to provide fluid and proactive support, as well as assisting on strategic university wide initiatives within the portfolio of responsibilities of the Senior team. As we hope to explain over the next week, this can be anything from organising the arrival of the new Vice-Chancellor, assisting in the monitoring and approval of MSA staff recruitment, and reviewing the University’s Governance structures, to reactive research and advice to allow UEG to make informed and timely decisions.

This blog isn’t our first effort to engage with new media as the gateway to inner workings of University management through the Vice-Chancellor’s Office: you can follow our Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/Soton_VC_Office.  Here we ‘tweet’ with daily insights into the work being carried out in our office, as well as ‘re-tweeting’ news stories of significance to the organisation.

Before we spend the rest of the week explaining our daily responsibilities, it would be best to introduce ourselves:

Andy – Having spent two years as President of the Students’ Union I was appointed as the Projects Manager in the Residences Department of the old Business & Community Services.  I applied for a secondment to the Vice-Chancellor’s Office in October 2007 and when the opportunity to work in the office permanently arose, I jumped at the opportunity.

Greg – After graduating in 2007 I spent a spell in the US before taking up a marketing position in what was then the School of Nursing and Midwifery. I moved to the Vice-Chancellor’s Office in June 2008, initially to provide support for the InEx review, before taking up a permanent position.

We look forward to your thoughts and feedback.

Mapping the route to success…

I’m meeting with the School of Management later today to transform their current site to the new standardised information architecture for schools. For those of you not (yet!) familiar with the architecture, here’s a look at the latest structure:

The yellow denotes content owned by the school, dark green highlights where the intro content will be written by the centre (and shared across all schools) and the light green where content is owned by the centre and shared across all school sites.

A sample homepage

The end result…a little easier on the eye!!

So – how to get from the yellow diagram to the nice web page above? It all starts with a mapping exercise where each part of the existing website content is analysed to determine whether this will form part of the new site and if so, where that content needs to sit within the architecture.

From experience with other sites, this usually leaves you with several things…

1. A gap in architecture – existing site content that has no home in the new architecture (following which a business requirement gathering session irons out the details and whether the architecture needs to be amended to accommodate the content)

2. Gap in content – pages within the new architecture that have no corresponding content in the existing site and will need to be created (appropriate school member is tasked with providing appropriate content)

3. A clear match between what exists now and where that site in the new architecture (a sigh of relief from all involved!)

Each school’s approach to this is different. Some schools view this as an opportunity to create new content and will effectively start from scratch, identifying appropriate content owners within the school to write relevant text.

Others are trying to re-use as much content from the existing site as possible and migrate that over.

In the back of my mind I have a concern: will these very different approaches ensure that all schools will be conveying the same/right message? Should the messages from each school be different but align to one university goal…is there a central purpose that is common to all of us?

If the answer to this is ‘no’, then, is it then possible to share one architecture and model if we are all trying to achieve different things? Do we all have our own agenda that is too far removed from the university goals to allow this project to achieve all the benefits originally anticipated?

Gulp.

The SIA project is building something for an ever changing organisation and therefore needs to be ‘agile’ and adaptable. There’s no point in building something that will only be relevant for 8 – 10 months, particularly in an organisation this size where implementing change is not a simple or quick process…or is the lack of clarity around direction why it takes so long?

A bit deep for a Tuesday afternoon perhaps…

Project Initiation – Cripes!

I’m new to this blogging malarkey so, patience and a whole lot of feedback please, so that I can master this by the end of the week (if you are good enough to stay with me through the process!!).

Who am I and what do I do?

My name is Katy Smart and I joined the university at the end of March as an IT Project Manager (ITPM) within iSolutions. I love Project Management – turning business requirements into technical solutions is very satisfying and I love being accountable for making that happen.   The role is varied – I get to plan how I am going to manage the project and put it into action, liaise with the business (meet loads of interesting people), find out about parts of the business you didn’t know existed, lead a team, present to stakeholders and Senior Management, challenge everything so that you can make sure that what you deliver is fit for purpose, improve processes –the list goes on…

Working at the university is a massive change for me – my previous ITPM role was working for LloydsTSB. I’m so happy that I don’t have to commute to London anymore!

In my life outside the university I am a keen runner (planning a 10k soon) and am in the throes of planning my wedding…where I am both stating the business requirements and delivering them…I’m a tricky customer!

So what have I been doing since I joined the university?

I have been given a university wide project to get my teeth stuck into.  The Standardised Information Architecture project is an important project for the university and is a right old…challenge!

A bit of background:

This project aims to define the core set of information that must be published on an external school web site, prescribe a standard structure for that information and establish content sharing between school sites and professional services sites.

It was concluded that all schools should create and maintain their own website and that the Autonomy (previously Interwoven) product Team Site would be the content management system used.   Team Site allows you to create templates that allow content to be created once and used multiple times in a variety of formats.  Using templates allows the university to enforce branding standards, reduce the costs of managing global content and improve content visibility and accountability throughout the organisation.  This project will deliver the templates defined within the information architecture structure to allow schools to implement and maintain an on brand website which will also assume the university’s new visual identity.

Having joined the project once the architecture had been agreed and half of the build work had been completed it seemed like I was on to a winner.  Once I had got my head around the aims of the project, I needed to spend time establishing a new project plan and way of working. The technical side of the project on track, I then focussed on the other side of the project – making sure that the architecture is fit for purpose and valid for 20 odd different schools, all with their own business processes and existing site structures.

I set about meeting our stakeholders (the schools) to understand their concerns/ queries/challenges as we launched into the next phase – mapping existing school site content to the new architecture.  Sound easy?

It isn’t.

This has raised so many challenges!  It’s only when you start mapping over content that other requirements start creeping out of the word work.  This week’s tasks include mapping over the school of Management’s content and wrestling with the more complicated structure of the School of Humanities with it’s many disciplines…

There are currently 10 schools involved with the SIA project (2 of which launch their new sites in October) and we have started our initial discussions with Student Services.  Things are hectic!!

The project is fantastic – it gives me an opportunity to meet a variety of interesting people across all of the university and is a great introduction to working in Higher Education for me!

In addition to the Standardised Information Architecture project I am also involved with reviving the Intranet project and scoping the second phase of the ‘Search’ project.  Exciting stuff!

Anyway – far too much gabble from me.  Hopefully this has given you an overview of my role within the University and I have my first ‘lesson learnt’: prepare your blog the day before and clearly determine what you are going to write about so that you don’t end up posting it after 5pm!

Any preferences to topics for the remainder of the week?

• More on the SIA project
• More on being a Project Manager (a day in the life?)
• More on coming into the University of Southampton from a commercial background
• None of the above – stick to project management and never blog again!

Look forward to hearing from you!

Laura Chappell in the Marketing and Communications Department

Hello there! let me start by introducing myself, I’m Laura, a Management student and this is my first blogging experience 21 years into life, so here goes…

I’m the intern in Communications & Marketing and the only female representative on the internship scheme, hopefully doing the females proud! I started my placement just under 6 weeks ago and oh my, what a 6 weeks it has been.

Looking back to 7am Monday 6^th June, which I must clarify only feels like was a few days ago, I was lying in bed not quite getting my head around the fact that this was it, my life, 5 days a week for the 3 months, but after some interesting ‘ice breaking’ sessions and meeting the support team, I soon came round to the idea of the early mornings, looking at it more of  an opportunity to get the maximum from my days, which most of you can imagine by being a student, isn’t the case.  I knew from the start that this was going to be a challenge, a learning exercise whereby I will overcome barriers which will benefit me in later life, but I can’t emphasis enough how much I have learnt and gained from these short 6 weeks.

 I have always been interested in the marketing and communications field, using every opportunity I can to gain experience into the industry, from the likes of HELLO! Magazine to Channel 4, but I can quite frankly say working for the University has been one of the most fascinating and engaging experiences I have done yet.

 Right, now down to the important part, the part that is slowly but surely beginning to take over my life: THE PROJECTS.

 Project number 1: Advertising. This consists of me compiling research on advertising activity across the university, from trawling through the dreaded Agresso system to meeting with each individual school & department. The aim, to pull together a tender to procure an advertising agency, streamlining the operation and allowing for economies of scale.

 Project number 2: Film & Video. Living in such a digital age and recruiting from the most computer literate generation, it is of increasing in importance to offer more interactive platforms of communication to its stakeholders in order to remain competitive, both commercially and academically. My job is to gather information University wide on current and previous film & Video usage so that once again, one agency can offer this to the whole university, potentially raising our online presence and potential.

 Project number 3: Brand. Uncovering the dolphin. This project which involves me getting a little ‘snap happy’ and sussing all those places where the dolphin is still in use, and also where the new brand is being over used…a real life adaptation of where’s Wally!

 Project number 4: Website. Last but not least, I’m undertaking a benchmarking exercise, comparing The University of Southampton website to 10 other Russell Group University domains. Seemingly simple but has already consisted of 22 reports, and I’m not even half way through!

 I have been working on these projects simultaneously, and as you can imagine, time management is key to these projects succeeding, something I have somewhat become an expert at over the prior 6 weeks. I also couldn’t have coped with the large work amount without the support and enthusiasm from my department, someone is always there to give me advice and guidance needed, and if not I just take 2 minutes out by turning my head 2cm to the left and I’m graced with 24hr sky news on the newly fitted media centre TV. I would be a great asset at a pub quiz right now!

 So there it is, 53 reports, 6 weeks and a few cakes later (yes, cake club is one of my best discoveries) my 4 children, which I fully intend to grow and nurture over the forthcoming weeks so that I can leave the department with some worthwhile results which can be implemented University wide. After much reflection since starting this Blog, I feel not only will I be graduating The University of Southampton with a degree, but also with the knowledge and experience which I gained from this internship scheme, something which I will value for the rest of my life.

 

 

Phil Waddell in Development and Alumni Relations

 I’m Phil, currently interning in The Office of Development and Alumni Relations. In a previous life, I had just completed my second year of study for my BSc in International Relations and was eagerly anticipating spending this summer abroad travelling and working in the United States. For most of my past academic year I’d been hearing whisperings and mutterings about the recession, but thought that such boring adult talk was far beneath me, a carefree student. The truth hit home when, in early June, I was informed that my American odyssey would not go ahead, as there was no work available for me in ‘The Land of Opportunity’.

 So with this last-minute reality check, I frantically attempted to salvage my summer, I’d heard too many horror stories from friends who just went home for the holidays and did absolutely nothing for the three months (quite a few of them seemed to think that this was actually a good thing…I strongly disagreed). I was determined to make sure I had a productive summer, even if it was just by learning a new skill, seeing more of the world, or (God forbid) working on my dissertation.

 Then I discovered the intern opportunities at the University. The rest, as they say…

 Quite frankly, this internship has been by a long shot the single best thing that I have done with a summer (even if the frankly ludicrous hours of 9-5 took some getting used to!)

 “At least you’ve had the experience of a proper interview” my mum told me after I informed her of my interview for the position and how I felt that it would all end there.

  But, astonishingly, I was offered the position, and now I find myself in an office of enthusiastic and amazingly friendly people, with the full support of colleagues, managers, the internship co-ordinators and, most importantly, my own projects. I have been tasked with organising an alumni reunion in Sydney, Australia and have been given specific tasks for the September 2009 Class Reunion on campus (which I have a free rein to plan and implement) whilst being encouraged to engage in communication with Alumni. I have learned the benefits of networking, organisation and time management and, (the most important and humbling aspect of my internship, in my opinion) been treated as a fully respected and equally important member of staff by everyone in professional services.

 All this shows just how serious the University is in developing students and preparing us for the business environment. To take six relatively inexperienced undergraduates, and have confidence (and managerial framework) to give them projects and tasks that far exceed the duties of the stereotypical intern, is worthy of great recognition within the University community.

 I started this entry by mentioning how shocked I was that I wasn’t going to be travelling to America this summer, I will end it by saying how glad I am that I’m not. This internship has given me opportunities to develop skills I really had never thought about. It has made me think about making my final year the most productive of the three (although I don’t for a second regret the late nights and lie ins of the previous two!) and I will certainly be exploring all the educational avenues of the student experience that I’ve discovered are open to me. Internships such as these must become the norm for every University. In the fiercely competitive working environment I will enter as a graduate, so much of what I have learned in the past six weeks alone would have been discovered only through trial and error.

Phil Waddell

Office of Development and Alumni Relations